Hello everyone! 🙂
Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!
This is considered a divisive season in the classic ‘Doctor Who’ TV series. Season 17 was script-edited by Douglas Adams, well-known for being the author of ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’. He previously wrote ‘The Pirate Planet’ in ‘The Key to Time’ season (Season 16). I enjoyed checking out Season 17. 🙂
However, there’s no denying that Season 17 had its issues. Douglas Adams is well-renowned for including humour in his science-fiction stories. Whilst comedy is often necessary in drama and sci-fi, too much of it can be a bad thing, and this is clearly evident in the stories Douglas Adams script-edited.
‘City of Death’ and the original ‘Shada’ are my favourite stories out of Season 17 of ‘Doctor Who’, especially since Douglas Adams is the main author of both. When it came to other stories not penned by him, the execution of them on TV is varied with interesting ideas often being ruined in the process. 😦
‘Destiny of the Daleks’ is a story that lacked excitement for me, despite Terry Nation being the writer. ‘The Creature From The Pit’ by David Fisher was ruined because of the way the titular creature was designed. ‘Nightmare of Eden’ had many behind-the-scenes issues due to its director.
‘The Horns of Nimon’ is what I consider my third favourite story out of Season 17, even if not many ‘Doctor Who’ fans like it so much. The sci-fi retelling of the Greek legend of Theseus and the Minotaur by Anthony Read won me over, despite the over-the-top acting from Graham Crowden. 😀
Season 17 sadly suffered from industrial action when the final story ‘Shada’ was cancelled during its production process. Despite that, ‘Shada’ was completed in 2017 and lately, I’ve been able to enjoy the Season 17 stories in their glory on Blu-ray in 2021 and appreciate the ideas and humour in each story.
Thanks for reading!
Bye for now!
Tim 🙂
Bradley's Basement 
As the final season for Graham Williams as producer, Season 17 certainly had too much comedy, even if it was often funny thanks to Douglas Adams. But it was for all intents and purposes most refreshing when John Nathan-Turner’s reign would revitalize Whoniversal seriousness. The last decade for classic Dr. Who would be a tough one in the demands to match all the new SF styles coming out. So we can still have our nostalgically good reasons for appreciating how S17 in its own way helped to end 70s Who.
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Hi scifimike,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on Season 17 of ‘Doctor Who’. It can’t be denied that Season 17 had its good and bad points. The comedy was too much in certain stories, but when the comedy-drama is done right, it’s done well, and I can see that clearly in stories like ‘City of Death’ and ‘Shada’ where Douglas Adams knew how to balance the comedy-drama compared to other stories like ‘The Creature From The Pit’ and ‘Nightmare of Eden’.
Many thanks,
Tim 🙂
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